Liquid crystal cells of the aforementioned kind, depending on the nature of the liquid crystal, react in various ways when a strong electric field (e.g. 10 V/.mu.) is switched on or off. In most cases, switching-on results in an approximately homogeneous structure (possibly with a number of dislocations) whereas switching-off may result in a helix, as is the case in DHF cells described in B. I. Ostrovski, Advances in Liquid Crystal Research and Applications, Oxford/Budapest, 1980, pages 469 ff.
The known Surface Stabilized Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal (SSFLC) effect of Lagerwall and Clark is different In nature, its main characteristic being that the helix which normally forms in the liquid crystals is suppressed by interaction with the surface. In order for the suppression to occur, the pitch of the helix must be considerably longer than the thickness of the display. This effect is described in Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. 94 (1983), 213-234 and 114 (1984), 151-187.
European patent application No. 88104176.8 describes another liquid crystal display which also uses liquid crystals having a small pitch. In this device, the structure of the liquid crystal in the cell comprises homogeneously oriented boundary layers (as in SSF-LCDs) and a helix structure in the interior of the cell.
The disadvantage of the known cells is that the critical wall orientation causes difficulties. Also, the "memory switching angles" are considerably smaller than the optimum of 45.degree.. The object of the present invention is to eliminate these disadvantages.